Louis Jadot Chardonnay 2011 with Char-grilled Prawns

I was born in Vietnam, so it's appropriate my first wine match post comes from Vietnam.

 

My recent trip to Vietnam was generally made up of very unpleasant wine experiences. Whether it's a storage issue or a lack of experience in buying wines; many restaurants stock very substandard bottles and charge vastly inflated prices. It's not uncommon to pay $15AUD for a glass of something that tastes like it came from a cask that's left to ferment in the sun.

 

The wine culture there is still developing; although there are a number of establishments that do understand wine and understand food matching.

 

The sommelier at 27 Grill above the Skybar in Saigon recommended this bottle; a Louis Jadot Chardonnay 2011. Without knowing match about French wines, I garnered what knew about Aussie chardonnays and hoped for the best.

 

I matched it with the char-grilled prawns with semi-dried tomato butter.

I was hoping since it was an oaked chardonnay that there might be a bit of malolactic fermentation. I do like a bit of 'malo' in my chardonnay. It gives it that sometimes caramel butter texture. The wine had a lovely fruity nose, medium bodied, but flattened out. Which is typical I guess of French wines I've tasted. I was hoping for a bit more acid to complement the semi-dried tomato, but it wasn't a bad match overall. The tomato-butter sauce filled in some of the flavours I was missing from the wine and the wine served up refreshing fruit lift in-between mouthfuls. Give it a go.

Wine score 7/10, Food score 8/10. Match score: 5/10; Total 20/30

Restaurant can be found at:
Tripadvisor link

 

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